Our lovely friend Fiona was able to work in a return trip to Bayreuth for this last weekend and came to the gala and the last party with me and my group of friends (two girls from NU - three, if you count me, a girl from France, and a guy from England). We all took the train on Saturday into Nuremberg, where we enjoyed a breezy afternoon seeing the sights and shopping around.
Nuremberg is a beautiful, old city with lots of history. We saw the "National Socialist" history last time we were in Nuremberg, and this time we took the time to wander around and see beautiful buildings. Like Prague (and other old cities), Nuremberg is divided into the "new" and "old" cities. The Alt Stadt (old city) is divided from the rest of the city by a huge, old wall.
In the middle of the old city, there is a large cathedral/castle, which bears an enormous resemblance to the cathedral in Prague. I guess ancient architects worked together?
We answered Sporcle quizzes late into the night and spent the night in a gorgeous hotel, sponsored by Fiona's mother (to whom we were ever grateful). On Sunday, we said goodbye to Felix, as he headed back to England to continue his studies. Sad day!
The four girls hung around Nuremberg for a bit longer, enjoying Belgian waffles and quality tea. Fiona is from the UK and thus values a cup of good tea with milk as much as I do. In fact, Saturday night, when I ordered hot tea with milk, the waitress asked me if I was British. "No," I thought, "Asian."
Another wonderful perk of Nuremberg? Starbucks! Bayreuth is a small town and thus doesn't have many chains and certainly no international ones. I don't mind because the local food and coffee are quite good, but I was pleased to order and enjoy a skinny hazelnut latte. Ah, life's smaller pleasures!
As most of the students at the Sommeruni are only staying for four weeks, we had a gala last night where the music, film, and journalism students presented the things that they had been working on in the course of the quarter. There were four short films, three journalism pieces, and 18 (yes, 18) musical pieces. The gala lasted for over four hours - which was a bit on the long side, but it was impressive that students who hadn't known each other at all a month ago were able to pull something together in that amount of time.
It was a bit strange for everyone to be saying goodbye, though, because I'm still here for three more weeks. I will meet new people, have new experiences, and not say goodbye to Germany quite yet. But 230 out of 260 students are leaving, so it made perfect sense to have a big "to-do" for them.
All the people who participated were given a rose (thus the picture) and we walked home late at night in the (unsurprising) pouring rain, laughing the whole way.
Monday, August 23, 2010
This weekend, my dad came to visit me in Bayreuth and take me on a trip to Prague. How excited I was when I woke up Friday morning and saw that the weather prediction: chance of rain, 0%. I have never seen that here (since it rains basically every day, no joke) but I was so pleased that it happened on the day when my dad was coming!
We spent Friday night in Bayreuth and I took him around to my favorite places - a coffee shop, a nice dinner place, the "best ice cream in the city" (according to Ellen, one of my friends here). We got up Saturday morning and drove the 3 and a half hours to Prague, with me as a navigator, which only ended in us getting lost once - and even then, it was the "scenic tour of working Germany."
Prague was filled with beautifully architectured, old buildings. It didn't rain the entire weekend, which was a novelty for me. We did the "tourist" things - and in Prague, there are quite a few tourists - saw the clock tower, toured the (gigantic!) castle and cathedral.
Friday night, we went to a beautiful fountain show with music, dancers, and fountains that danced and looked like fireworks. It was quite interesting because we had never seen anything quite like that.
We enjoyed Starbucks, shopped around a little, but mostly enjoyed some really wonderful conversations. I am so, so glad that we got to spend a weekend together! It was great to have someone from my family here, as I am a bit alone in Germany. The weekend together allowed me to get recharged and be ready (and excited!) for my next four weeks in Germany.
On today's excursion, we visited a teeny tiny village (not kidding about the size - there were 50 inhabitants) known as "Little Berlin." Apparently, when the German Wall was up, this town was divided down the middle, just like Berlin. Normally, if a town was on the border, they would send the inhabitants to one side or the other, but they went ahead and divided this one. It's famous and only an hour away, so we took a trip to visit it and went on a tour of what the German wall and the border patrol would have looked like at the time.
The tour was given in German and English -by the same guy. It looked a bit like schizophrenia - he would tell us a section of the tour in German, and then turn right around and repeat it in English. Sometimes, he forgot where he had left off in his translation of himself and would ask the German speakers what he had said last. It was amusing.
Funny moment: our tour guide made a comment about how Pirates of the Caribbean was a horrible movie . I, naturally, made a face, because Pirates of the Caribbean is a work of pure genius. He picked up on it, though, and said, "Well, you probably think Titanic is great too." And everyone laughed. :-)
Best part of the entire day? That it did not rain until we got on the bus to go home. Hooray!
The most interesting thing that happened today was that I finally found an article of clothing that I have been looking for actively for over a year. A long sweater/cardigan with buttons. I have been wanting one for a very, very long time and today I finally found one, in our very own Bayreuth mall. Hooray!
Also, it's now the end of the second week and I'm starting to feel like things are clicking so much faster. I can tell that it's getting easier every day to speak German, to understand what's going on around me. In my journalism lecture, we've been talking about the differences between the German media system and the media system in other countries and I understood well up to 85% of what my instructor was saying, which was a huge leap from earlier. I'm so glad that I'm here for seven weeks, though. Most of the people in the program (230 out of 260) are only staying for four weeks, because they have to get back for school to start. But there are 30 people staying for seven weeks, and I am one of them. Northwestern's late start is finally useful! I feel like I've learned so much in these two weeks, so I can't wait to see what's going to happen over the next five!
Today, instead of the second half of our morning class and all of our afternoon class, we had a chance to take a trip to Nuremburg and see all the "National Socialist" buildings. Nuremburg was the headquarters of the National Socialist (unsure if that's the correct English translation) party and was where Hitler made all his speeches and gathered his power. It was really powerful and meaningful to see the buildings and stand in the very places where such monumental things happened.
We then went to a museum where I took a German audio tour of the museum documenting the rise of the Nazi party where I was inspired to write my book about the Gulag. Ok, so it's not exactly the same thing, but it all happened in the same time period, under dictators pressing for an ideal that was destroying everything around them. The whole time I was there, I could see the faces of the people I interviewed last summer and I wanted to write about them so much that it actually hurt. I love that feeling, though, because every time I get it, I know I've chosen the right profession. Every time I feel like my heart might break if I don't get out there and do something, and tell stories, I know that God has put me in the right place, where I can learn the right things that will help me go out there and make a difference, no matter what I end up doing.
One of my friends here had an emergency at home which mandated that she fly immediately home. We booked her flights for the next day, but Bayreuth is unfortunately situated in a place where it's practically impossible to get to convenient airports. So this morning, another girl and I got up and made our way to the Bayreuth rental car agency where the fact that she could only drive automatic made us have to rent a BMW 500 series. Needless to say, she wasn't going to complain...
We drove to the Munich aiport with myself as the navigator (for some very strange reason, everyone here thinks I am the go-to-person for directions. I think they are a wee bit confused, but I haven't gotten us lost yet, so maybe I'm growing!), said our goodbyes to sweet Fiona, and found our way back to Bayreuth. All in all, a successful journey.
This weekend we took our first excursion - and in proper Bayreuth style, it rained all day long! We drove to the city of Dresden, which is supposedly 2 and a half hours away by bus. Unfortunately, because of the rain, the German Autobahn was completely stopped up and it took us five and a half hours to get there. Which, understandably, considerably shortened our time in the city itself. But, nonetheless, I loved getting to see the old buildings.
My friends and I purchased tickets to climb to the top of the Frauenkirche, a church with a tower where you can see the entire city in one "Blick" (moment). Beautiful city, even in the rain!
Things are beginning to get a little rhythm by the time today rolls around. You get up, you go to your morning classes, you have lunch in the cafeteria (and in case anyone is wondering, the salad bar is wonderful and the hot foods are not-so-wonderful- good thing I like salad!), you go to your afternoon classes. When you get out, you either go on an excursion or go home before coming back in the evening to either go to a lecture or hang out with people. I skipped the excursion today because there are only so many museums I can deal with a week without falling over in pure exhaustion – and instead went home to make a list of vocabulary words that I’m learning and watch an episode of television. It was good to get a break! Later that evening, I hung out with some people and we wandered around the city until we got hungry and got a late-night dinner (10:30) of spaghetti carbonara. Yum!
1)Language classes in the morning where we talked about how foreigners perceive the German culture
2)An excursion to the Hermitage, a beautiful park with castles and gardens
3)A delicious popsicle that tasted just like frozen orange juice
4)Walking through the city with some friends
5)Cooking vegetable lasagna with my roommates in the evening!
The last point was the best thing that happened all day. To begin with, it’s slightly difficult for me to ever even really SEE my roommates because we have completely opposite schedules. So, I had only actually ever seen them when I met them, and then never again. For three entire days! Then, I bumped into one of them in the morning (this morning) and she invited me to come make dinner with them that night. I was highly excited because I kind of wanted to get to know them better. It’s slightly awkward to live in a house where you don’t really know the other occupants and I was finding myself afraid to leave my room to go to the bathroom in case I would bump into one of them and they would be angry with me for taking up too much space. So we spent a wonderful evening cooking together and now going to the bathroom is slightly less intimidating, which I find to be a great accomplishment.
“I am in way over my head and I have no idea what’s going on,” was what I thought today after lunch, when my Journalism course began. The morning had been fairly low-key, with few speeches of welcome from the university president and the mayor of the city, and then a regular-seeming German class where everyone was pretty much at my level. But as soon as I walked into my journalism course, I realized something here was not quite right. Everyone looked significantly older than me and everyone’s German was significantly better than mine (and when I say significant, I mean really that they were absolutely fluent). Turns out, almost everyone else in the class was a practicing, working journalist in the real world. My two years of journalistic experience didn’t hold much ground with people actually working for TV channels.
“We’ll focus primarily on writing articles in this class,” our instructor said. (Actually, he said: we’llfocusprimarilyonwritingarticlesinthisclass. I have NEVER heard anyone speak as fast as he did, which unfortunately meant that I only understood about 40% of what he said)
Well, that’s great, I thought, since my written German is about at a third grade level. At a stretch.
When our instructor dismissed us for break, I literally thought I might die. I understood nothing of what was going on. I was the worst out of everyone by about four hundred times. I had no idea how I was going to survive the next weeks. Thankfully, though, my positive mindset kicked in about then. I remembered that I learn really quickly and that, even if I can’t catch totally up, I can at least significantly close the gap within the coming weeks. I remembered that it actually doesn’t matter if I don’t know what’s going on, as long as I try my best and turn in articles every week, since the class is only graded pass/fail. I remembered that I’m not here to be the best, but rather to learn, which means that being the worst is GREAT because that way, I can learn the most. I also remembered how many classes I’ve started at very bottom only to end up in the upper midlde by the end.
When I went back for our evening class (yes, the journalism course is so intense that, once a week, while all the rest of the students have a sport program, we get class again! Makes me feel right at home) I was far better prepared. I told the instructor that I was sorry that my German wasn’t as good as everyone else’s, but that I would try my best to keep up. My comprehension of his incredibly fast speech went up to about 60%, which was a huge jump. And, best of all, he explained exactly what he needed from us.
An article a week about something that’s going on at the Sommer Uni. In journalist jargon, an event story. No problem! We did those back in freshman year.
Blog entries about whatever we feel like. Also, not a big deal. I’ll get my creative juices flowing and send it to our instructor ahead of time so that he can check the spelling.
A TV package made and filmed with the film students. As if I didn’t do one of those a week all quarter in 322. And, I don’t even have to worry about filming/editing – all I have to do is write the story.
And that was it. That is the extent of my torture in the next three weeks. Coming from a Northwestern student used to a life of crazy stress, one or two things due a week is incredibly low-key. Even if it’s in a language that I don’t really speak. :-)
1)Took a placement test because my German was better than the class I placed into. (What they expect me to have learned in the past two weeks since I took the test, I don’t know. Fact: I don’t understand German grammar)
2)Had an hour and a half conversation with a guy from Azerbaijan in German. He showed me how to put money on the card that you use in the Mensa (cafeteria) and how to buy coffee (highlight of my morning!).
3)Wandered around the campus with a tour group, being introduced to all the buildings. They all have things like (no joke): WG-1, NG-1, NG-2, RW-1. Oh, so German.
4)Bought groceries (happy day!) at a local supermarket and helped a poor, lost Russian girl find the bus stop. (Things must be bad if people are asking ME for directions!)
5)Sat in on my first all-German lecture to learn that (gasp!) cultures are different. Glad I flew all the way over here to learn that one. :-)
6)Found the mall where I went back-to-school shopping and bought paper and pens with the two other girls from Northwestern and spoke my first English of the day. I was again in charge of navigation and reading the map. And, shockingly enough, we did NOT get lost.
7)Had Doner Kebap for dinner: cheap, filling, and fast!
8)Hung out with a French girl at a Grill Party that got rained out and then walked back home to fall into bed, worn out and tired but oh, so happy.
Thoughts: I think I’m going to really, really like it here.
After a summer of adventures, craziness, stress (both physical and mental) and anything but rest, the fact that I was about to head off on another big adventure seemed positively petrifying. I was ready to curl up in a bed and take a nice long nap, not fly to another country all by myself to study a language that I barely speak. But, I had made the commitment, gotten the scholarship, and put all the pieces in place to head off on an adventure of a lifetime, so by golly I was going to do just that. And thankfully, somewhere on the plane from Kazakhstan to Frankfurt, my brain kicked in.
I'm going to GERMANY.
I've never been there before.
I won't know anyone.
I don't even really SPEAK German.
This. is. gonna. be. AWESOME!
:-)
After I got off my flight in Frankfurt, I met Anna, another girl from Northwestern. We navigating the (somewhat confusing) train system out of the airport to the central train station and purchased train tickets through Nuernberg to Bayrueth. We had about an hour, so we got some coffee as we stylishly waited with our luggage.
Then we took a three and a half hour train to Nuernburg, where I learned that, in Germany, you can reserve seats ahead of time on trains. If you do that, a little red sign will light up on the wall next to your seat and if that happens, you have the freedom to kick anyone else out of your seat who happens to be sitting there, even if there are no more seats on the train. Yes, that did happen to me. But, being the Kazakhstan girl that I am, I seat-hopped around the train sitting on empty seats and just waiting for someone to come and make me move.
We switched trains in Nuremburg to hop on a train to Bayreuth, where I got my first view of the city I will be living in.
The day ended with hectic registration, my moving into an apartment with a bedroom bigger than my entire apartment at Northwestern, jet-lagged conversation in German with my roommates, a half-hearted attempt at a get-together in the pub (half-hearted only because everyone that came was exhausted) and a wonderful, glorious sleep.
In the middle of the old city, there is a large cathedral/castle, which bears an enormous resemblance to the cathedral in Prague. I guess ancient architects worked together?
We answered Sporcle quizzes late into the night and spent the night in a gorgeous hotel, sponsored by Fiona's mother (to whom we were ever grateful). On Sunday, we said goodbye to Felix, as he headed back to England to continue his studies. Sad day!
